Now reading...

[Leeway]

The question was what to read after spending over a month with Clarissa. The answer turned out to be an old friend, Iris Murdoch, and her The Green Knight, published 1993, and her 25th novel. Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 1997, so I expected that this novel might find her seriously off her game. I don't think it does. It has the usual Murdoch strengths and weaknesses, but overall it is quite a good read.

And since the novel does make use of the Green Knight myth, I decided to read:

Simon Armitage's modern "Englishing" of the original alliterative poem. I very much enjoyed reading this modern version, but it also has the original Middle English text on the facing page, so one gets the best of both.

I saw Armitage read that in a lightly staged production recently. Excellent

I would have liked that.

[ejp626]

Faulkner As I Lay Dying

I'm actually having more trouble following the action, as quite a few of the characters seem to be "feeble-minded" not just one as in The Sound and the Fury. I'm not enjoying it as I have nothing but contempt for the father and his stupid quest. I'll probably get around (some day) to reading most of Faulkner twice, but I think I'll pass on this one.

I can't exactly explain why I am so angry about this novel, other than perhaps the stupid, stubborn and often lazy characters that Faulkner is portraying (with a higher percentage here than in many other of his novels) did not fade away but actually have taken charge of U.S. politics. I was going to write more, but it would just take me further off tangent.

[Leeway]

Faulkner As I Lay Dying

I'm actually having more trouble following the action, as quite a few of the characters seem to be "feeble-minded" not just one as in The Sound and the Fury. I'm not enjoying it as I have nothing but contempt for the father and his stupid quest. I'll probably get around (some day) to reading most of Faulkner twice, but I think I'll pass on this one.

I can't exactly explain why I am so angry about this novel, other than perhaps the stupid, stubborn and often lazy characters that Faulkner is portraying (with a higher percentage here than in many other of his novels) did not fade away but actually have taken charge of U.S. politics. I was going to write more, but it would just take me further off tangent.

Not sure if you picked up on the humor of the story. Definitely swathed in Gothic humor. As for the characters, they would have been (be) considered "poor white trash," but that is what Faulkner wants us to perceive, then he goes deep into their minds and spirits, humanizes and elevates them to nearly epic proportions. As for drawing a direct line between fictional characters of that time and Tea Party types of today (I'm assuming that is the reference), it's an interesting thought, but I'm not sure the line is that straight.

[ejp626]

Faulkner As I Lay Dying

I'm actually having more trouble following the action, as quite a few of the characters seem to be "feeble-minded" not just one as in The Sound and the Fury. I'm not enjoying it as I have nothing but contempt for the father and his stupid quest. I'll probably get around (some day) to reading most of Faulkner twice, but I think I'll pass on this one.

I can't exactly explain why I am so angry about this novel, other than perhaps the stupid, stubborn and often lazy characters that Faulkner is portraying (with a higher percentage here than in many other of his novels) did not fade away but actually have taken charge of U.S. politics. I was going to write more, but it would just take me further off tangent.

Not sure if you picked up on the humor of the story. Definitely swathed in Gothic humor. As for the characters, they would have been (be) considered "poor white trash," but that is what Faulkner wants us to perceive, then he goes deep into their minds and spirits, humanizes and elevates them to nearly epic proportions.

That may be what he is selling, but I'm not buying it. I don't see any nobility in their stiff-neckedness or getting bent out of shape when a neighbor won't lend them another set of mules for them to kill trying to cross the river in a pointless endeavor.

I'm basically with Cora who presumably was expecting and perhaps hoping that Anse would drown in the first river crossing.

To me, the balance is off and I can handle one of these characters like Sartoris or Ab Snopes, but when the entire book is populated with characters that I don't like and have no sympathy for at all, then I don't plan on returning.

[Leeway]

I very rarely give up on a book, but 145pp into John Wain's The Pardoner's Tale, I had to throw in the towel, and admit that the book was simply wretchedly written. The structure of the book might be part of the problem. It opens with the tale of Gus and Julia. Gus rescues troubled Julia (but alas not her Mini) from a rising tide on a Welsh beach (shades of Iris Murdoch!). Gus's passionate pursuit of Julia through a variety of obstacles is one of the main narratives of the novel. It is all written in fevered adventure-story, matey sort of prose. At the start of the next chapter, we realize that the story of Gus and Julia is actually a novel-in-progress being written by Giles Armitage, whose own story is told in the 3rd person by yet another narrator (Wain?). This story is faux-James (or Iris? or Penelope?), and while pitched a bit higher than the Gus-Julia tale, is not much better. The two stories alternate throughout. I literally couldn't stand reading it. The prose is execrable, and the stories without depth.

Puzzling, since Wain is well-regarded. I have his bio of Samuel Johnson, which is quite good. I was expecting much more, otherwise I might not have made it to Chapter 2. I would like to think the novel is some sort of joke, but if it is, it exacts too high a price on the reader. Plus, the Chaucerian

reference implied in the title doesn't seem to have a place in the book. Is it a hoax or just very badly written, slung out for the pop book trade? I'm inclining to the latter. BTW, the publisher must not have put stock in the book; the hardcover glue binding literally disintegrated as I read. I also noticed that this title is rarely referenced in lists of his writing.

Maybe others have checked out Wain's fiction? I've read that his first novel, which has a jazz theme, is very good.

[BillF]

I haven't read The Pardoner's Tale, but written in 1978 it sounds well after Wain's vintage period - I always see him as a novelist of the 50s or 60s. Glad you've read Hurry On Down, which must be one of the best English novels of its times. The Contenders was sufficiently interesting to take me back for a re-reading some years later (as Hurry On Down had been.) The other Wains I've read - all from his earlier period - are now just a blur in my memory. I seem to recall that Strike the Father Dead had a jazz theme.

[A Lark Ascending]

Read this, Dave-boy; then hang your head in shame.

[danasgoodstuff]

Glyn Johns, Sound Man. Enjoyable but not very insightful on the people or very detailed on the technical end. Claims he was the first UK engineer to make the transition to producer. Some interesting observations on the many musicians and industry people he's met. Not afraid to say he doesn't like someone. I think he can afford to be candid.

[jlhoots]

Richard Price: The Whites

[ejp626]

I've been reading some relatively contemporary short stories -- Chabon's A Model World and Somerville's The Universe in Miniature in Miniature.

[BillF]

[Leeway]

THE MIGHTY AND THEIR FALL - 1955- Ivy Compton-Burnett

Written almost entirely in dialogue (or one might better say, aphorisms posing as dialogue), this is the story of the corruption of a family. The near-complete lack of narrative guideposts can be disturbing or confusing at times, but if one stays with it, ICB demonstrates a surgeon's hand in dissecting the power plays, hatreds, exploitations and general nastiness of family members bound together by self-interest, arrogance, and pride (or the lack of it). If you like that sort of thing, it can even be funny at times, with a mordant humor.

[BillF]

THE MIGHTY AND THEIR FALL - 1955- Ivy Compton-Burnett

Written almost entirely in dialogue (or one might better say, aphorisms posing as dialogue), this is the story of the corruption of a family. The near-complete lack of narrative guideposts can be disturbing or confusing at times, but if one stays with it, ICB demonstrates a surgeon's hand in dissecting the power plays, hatreds, exploitations and general nastiness of family members bound together by self-interest, arrogance, and pride (or the lack of it). If you like that sort of thing, it can even be funny at times, with a mordant humor.

I haven't read any Compton-Burnett, but she's on my list of authors to look into. Wikipedia says that Manservant and Maidservant (published in the US as Bullivant and the Lambs) is often considered to be her best work and the university library has a copy, so we shall see ....

[jlhoots]

Phil Klay: Redeployment

[Leeway]

Phil Klay: Redeployment

I thought that was some pretty strong/moving reading.

[Leeway]

10:04 - Ben Lerner (novel)

Lerner's 2014 novel is prefaced by a Hasidic saying:

"The Hasidim tell a story about the world to come that says everything there will be just the same as it is here. Just as our room is now, so it will be in the world to come; where our baby sleeps new, there too it will sleep in the other world. And the clothes we wear in this world, those too we will wear there. Everything will be as it is now, just a little different."

I loved that last line. It reminded me of the discussion here on the Org Board of MOPDTK's album "Blue," a note for note transcription of "Kind of Blue," around which the argument swirled, "same but different."

Anyway, it's sort of the metaphysical premise of Lerner's metafictional fiction; deflections of reality that leave the story same but different, real but unreal.

[ejp626]

10:04 - Ben Lerner (novel)

Sounds interesting. Quite a long queue at the library, so I may get it in a few months.

I'm nearly done with Somerville's The Universe in Miniature in Miniature. Quirky. A lot like reading early Jonathan Lethem, which is good and bad.

[kinuta]

Hawks On Hawks - Joseph McBride

[kinuta]

1913 : In Search Of The World Before The Great War - Charles Emmerson

Fascinating up to now.

[paul secor]

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

I'd never read any Jane Austen before this and enjoyed it thoroughly.

[Leeway]

THE GOLDEN CHILD - 1977- Penelope Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's first novel, an amusing satire on museums (or at least the British Museum), blockbuster exhibits (think Tutankhamen), and globe-trotting academics (think French deconstructionists), wrapped in a rather silly, certainly implausible, murder mystery.

[BillF]

THE GOLDEN CHILD - 1977- Penelope Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's first novel, an amusing satire on museums (or at least the British Museum), blockbuster exhibits (think Tutankhamen), and globe-trotting academics (think French deconstructionists), wrapped in a rather silly, certainly implausible, murder mystery.

Good summary, Leeway. The book's readable, but not treasurable like Offshore and The Bookshop IMHO.

Edited March 8, 2015 by BillF

[erwbol]

Thomas Pynchon - Inherent Vice

Finished the first of the four Fall Revolution novels by Ken MacLeod yesterday. Now quickly on to Pynchon's Inherent Vice so the movie's Blu-ray won't spoil the book for me.

A waste of money and effort. At one point I felt like reading some non-fiction, so I put it away for a day or two. This is normal for me. When I picked Inherent Vice up again the book had lost its hold on me. It feels like this could have happened anywhere in its 400 or so pages.

[sidewinder]

Dipping into Steve Isoardi's 'Central Avenue Sounds' (signed by some of the participants) and the Horace Tapscott bio 'Songs of the Unsung'.

Edited March 8, 2015 by sidewinder

[ejp626]

In the on-deck circle, Julian Barnes's A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and Djuna Barnes Nightwood.

I made it through the first chapter, which was a very tedious retelling of the Noah and the Ark story. I realize there is no way to tell the story literally in a way that doesn't sound absurd, but somehow the tone was so off and Barnes kept layering on one thing after another -- that's why there are no basilisks and no unicorns and so forth. Maybe what really killed it for me was the combination of the Ark legend with Kipling's Just So Stories (how Noah's beatings gave the zebras their stripes; how hiding from Noah caused chameleons to change their color; etc.). See Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage for tackling the same legend/myth (including an on-board unicorn!) but somehow done in a far superior manner.

I'll probably slog through, but this generally reinforces my opinion that Julian Barnes is a writer who thinks he is far cleverer than he actually is. While it's been a long, long while since I read it, I am actually revising my opinion of Flaubert's Parrot somewhat downwards in retrospect. I'm probably going to strike him (Barnes) off the list and not read anything further by him.

I am looking forward to the reread of Nightwood, however. Pretty sure I will find that a lot more rewarding.